<x-flowed>During April, the topic of DOULOS, its translation and interpretation, was
an active thread.

Now, I see that the RBL web-site has posted:

Combes, I. A. H. The Metaphor of Slavery in the Writings of the Early
Church: From the New Testament to the Beginning of the Fifth Century

The reviewer writes:
Combes approaches Christian appropriation
of the language of slavery as a case study in
religious metaphor. Problems arise when those
who deploy religious metaphors confuse them
with literal descriptions of the world: "The area
in which this problem probably causes the most
consternation today is that of the use of 'social
relationship' terms in speaking of God" (p. 11).